This invention relates to the construction of an electronic watch, and particularly to the manner in which the circuitry on a watch substrate is connected and controlled within a watch case.
An electronic watch is one in which time increments are generated at a frequency in the order of kilocycles to megacycles per second, with dividers and memories for electronic time information processing. Readout is conveniently digital so that there are usually no movable mechanical parts except for switches to control the electronics. In recent years, there have been many inventions in electronic watches and many of the patents describe at least a portion of the physical constructions which interrelate the physical and electronic components. Pertinent background patents include McCullough et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,031, Perkins et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,784,725, Doss U.S. Pat. No. 3,846,972 and Yamazaki U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,523. These patents are just a few in the large body of prior art in the electronic watch and related field and are offered as examples of patents which disclose some of the physical structure of electronic watch construction.
More recent background patents which show electronics and structure which more closely relate to the present watch are Moyer U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,189 and Zurcher and Merles U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,568. Additionally, a particular watch module in which the present invention can be employed is shown in Zurcher, Somogyi and Burke application Ser. No. 563,927, filed Mar. 31, 1975 and assigned to the common assignee. The disclosure of each of these cross-referenced patents and application is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.
In order to be economically competitive, the modern electronic watch must have a minimum number of parts, must be economically assembleable and must be reliable. This invention defines a structure by which these desirable features can be achieved.